A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that one in five adolescents have been sexually solicited online. It's a serious problem, considering 24 million children use the Internet regularly, says Vickie Beck, a nurse psychotherapist at the University of Maryland Hospital for Children.
Most often the requests for personal or sexually explicit information occur when children are in chat rooms or e-mailing. Twice as many girls are solicited than boys.
"Parents should teach their children that it is inappropriate for anyone to be asking personal questions and they should not respond," says Ms. Beck. Here are some more recommendations from Ms. Beck to make sure your child is safe while in cyberspace:
Parents may not know sexual solicitation online is a real problem, since only 40 percent of children tell their parents this has happened to them. An even smaller percentage, just 10 percent, report these solicitations to the authorities.
The younger the child, the more likely an online advance will distress them. Older teens can cope better. They know how to handle the situation and most often just ignore the solicitations, which Ms. Beck says is the right thing to do.
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